In modern day digital equipment, there has been developing a greater and greater density of packaging on printed circuit boards, and a higher density of printed circuit boards in computer and digital cabinetry. In this situation, there have been numerous ways developed to reduce the generation of internal heat and to carry away the excessive heat build-up.
One of the basic ways of doing this has been to develop metallic fins and other heat conducting means by which cooling air can be used to carry away the accumulated internal heat within the integrated circuit packages that are used on the printed circuit boards.
A major problem has been to provide for the maximization of the heat reduction and at the same time, to be economically feasible, while, additionally providing for ease of application to areas which are restricted in space and cooling capacity.
Thus, in order to minimize the problems of economic feasibility, the problems of providing for heat dissipation in small compact areas, and to provide easy adaptability to high density integrated circuit packages while using a minimum of labor activity, there has been developed a segmented heat sink device for attachment to the top of an integrated circuit package which provides four sectors, independent of each other, with radial metallic fins which are configured to form a central orifice area whereby cooling air can operate into the orifice area and outwardly pass by the fins to provide the required cooling action.
In these types of situations for handling the cooling in high density areas, one major problem has been the loosening of the adhesive bond between the integrated circuit package and the heat sink device. By segmenting the heat sink device into four independent and separate sectors, the effective length involved in the cycle of heat expansion and cooling contraction is considerably reduced, thus to minimize any degradation of the adhesive effect between the heat sink device and the integrated circuit package.